


Not to Blame

by StrawhatsAndDelibirds



Series: Modern verse [11]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, going from eastern naming conventions to western doesn't always work nicely, his last name is monkey....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21923335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawhatsAndDelibirds/pseuds/StrawhatsAndDelibirds
Summary: If you don't tell someone to do something, you can't get in trouble when they do exactly what you want them to do.
Series: Modern verse [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571110
Kudos: 8





	Not to Blame

She wasn’t a fan of this new kid. It was bad enough that she had to deal with this new guy in her house, but this new kid didn’t even have the saving grace of her mom liking him. At least the new guy could smile and make her mom happy. 

Her family was staying at his house for a few weeks while they remodeled their home. Because another secret benefit of the new guy her mom was seeing, was that he had money. Nami couldn’t tell you exactly how much richer he was, but she did know it was enough to add onto their house. If it weren’t for that kid with the bad attitude, she’d fully welcome this new guy as her step dad. 

It had only been a few days, but she already had enough of this kid. Sure he was older than both her and Nojiko, but it wasn’t even that much. He just thought he was so cool because he gets to waltz in and think he’s at the top of the totem pole cause he was born earlier. She could barely wait to see that all come crashing down around him. 

She was hatching a plan. A plan that she could walk away from with no trouble at all. And as most schemes, it revolved around the weird kid in her grade. He wasn’t really someone that she wanted in her house, because profit aside he was gross. If he was in her house he could touch her things and then they would be gross. 

But this kid had a rumour that was floating around the school, a rumor that could make her plan great. This kid apparently had a bad habit of breaking into places to be in solely because he was told not to. Now the teacher’s lounge wasn’t exactly the most secure place, especially during the day, but according to this kid and his friend, he got in there. 

Granted the other kid was a known liar, and a bad one at that. But to his credit, it really looked like the kid had did it. The way he talked about made it seem real. Especially since she knew he was an even worse liar, and not smart enough to lie about being a liar. 

In business you had to take a risk if you wanted to make it big. Worst case scenario, he didn’t care about it. If he didn’t care about it, then he wasn’t going to do it. She’d have to buy him lunch and those were her hard earned profits. Money aside, she’d also have a way for it to be traced back to her and get her in trouble for bringing this plague into their home. 

“So Luffy, what are you up to this weekend?” She asked, his friend already catching on that she was up to something. She ignored his suspicious squinting and carried on.

“Dunno, probably gonna try and get Ace and Sabo to play video games with me. Why are you inviting me over?” He looked at her with eyes filled with innocence and excitement. She was already exploiting this kid for profit, why would she start having a conscience now? 

“As much as I’d love that, I’m not at my house right now. They’re adding onto my house so my mom’s boyfriend’s son has a place to live. It’d be rude if I invited you over to someone else’s house.” She could see the disapproval in Usopp’s eyes. They both knew exactly what kind of person she was. You don’t get twenty collective dollars by making your fellow kids pay to watch your partner lick spray cheese off the gym floor.

But she could see the look of defiance in Luffy’s eyes. Those were the eyes of a child who would not be denied. She could already see him planning something, though she wasn’t exactly sure what. 

“Kay.” Said a Luffy who was probably do something stupid, but for free this time. 

The bell rang and she went to her class, and they went to theirs. It was a little odd that he didn’t ask her where her mom’s boyfriend’s house was. He wasn’t exactly the brightest, but she figured he had to know he couldn’t go somewhere he had never been. Surely he had to realize this. 

Yeah. Any moment now he was going to walk into her classroom and ask where they were. Nami knew he had no issue doing as he pleased, so a classroom wasn’t going to stop him. 

But the periods passed, and he never showed up. It was going to be very disappointing if she had to wait for a whole weekend before she tried this again because he got distracted and forgot. That was so long to deal with her annoying step brother. 

Next time she’d find a way to do it later in the day. There was too much stuff between last recess and the end of the day. Why did good plans have to be so hard to execute? 

As she was figuring out a way for this to work out, she noticed someone taking the seat next to her. Now as one of the oldest kids in the school, she thought that most of the kids were smart enough to not sit with her. She had earned her right to sit at the back of the bus, and there was plenty of space for the kids to sit at the front. 

“LuffY??” She asked, shock taking over and changing what she was going to say. It was almost smart of him to just get on her bus like this. She was too busy thinking of how he was going to find her house, that she completely forgot that following her home was an option. 

“Hi Nami.” He grinned, like he wasn’t doing the opposite of what she said. This helped her plan a lot, but there was no way for him to know that. As far as he knew he was here breaking the rules. 

“What are you doing here?” She asked, knowing exactly what he was doing here. 

“Goin to your house.” She couldn’t tell if this was him being dumb, or if he was incredibly bold. It could also be both, but she was thinking it was more the first. 

“Didn’t I tell you not to?”

“Yeah, but I wanted to.” He was kinda the worst, but at the same time she could kind of respect that. 

“Well I guess if no one can stop you from eating literal garbage, there’s nothing I can do to stop you, huh.” 

“Nope.”

“Fine, I guess. But you have to tell my mom you invited yourself over. I’m not getting into trouble because you can’t follow directions.” Even if this was exactly like he planned it. “And you also can’t go into my step brother’s room. He’ll get really mad if you do and I’m not going to save you if he catches you.” 

She watched as he got the same expression he had earlier. This was easier than getting him to eat a worm. The best part about this, was that she wasn’t lying about anything. She was a blameless party in all this because she told him not to go in any of those places, and she didn’t invite him anywhere. This was the perfect plan. 

They got to her stop, and got off. Nojiko was waiting there for her. Law was too cool for both of them, so he went off home to listen to edgy music or something dumb like that. She looked at Luffy, then at Nami. 

“Did you pay a kid to do your homework? You know they don’t usually come home with you.”

“He’s not doing my homework. I wanna pass my classes. He wasn’t invited, but he got on my bus so we’re stuck with him til his parents pick him up.” Still all the truth. Nojiko gave her the same distrustful look Usopp did. She did nothing but bait a trap. 

“Yeah, she said not to come over cause it’s not her house but its fine cause that’s how I meet lots of people.” He beamed. That sounded dangerous, but she wasn’t about to get in a fight over this. “I’m Luffy!” 

“Nojiko.” Luffy stuck his hand out for her to shake, but fortunately she saw the looks Nami was giving her, so she instead gave him a pat on the head. Nami nodded sagely. She loved her sister, and didn’t want her shaking hands with a kid who picked his nose. It was gross and her least favorite of the things he did. 

There walk home was mostly Luffy running ahead and then coming back because he realized that he still did not know where their house was. Nokjiko kept her eyes on her, because she was too smart to know that she wasn’t up to something. What she didn’t know is that she technically did nothing wrong but provoke someone that was easy to provoke. It was going to happen one day, but Nami was just using it to her advantage. 

When they got to their house, Luffy ran in first. Well there went her warning her mom before he got in. Good thing her mom rolled with the punches.

“We’re here!” He yelled triumphantly, throwing his backpack at the shoe rack. He left his shoes in the entrance way and ran off to explore. Her and Nojiko followed behind, putting their shoes where they’re supposed to be and bring their backpacks with them to at least leave in the living room where they would pretend they brought them there for homework later. 

Their mom wasn’t there though, but her boyfriend was. Mr. Donquixote stared at them, then at the boy, then at them. He was looking for answers, because he was new here, and much less willing to call them on their misbehaving. 

“I have no control over him, he followed me home.” The look on his face went from confusion to horror. 

“He can’t do that! Child or not, he needs to learn boundaries.” He got up, then stopped. “That is not my child, I’m not supposed to parent other children.” 

They stood in the living room and watched as the gears clicked in his head. 

“I can call his parents!” He realized triumphantly. He went over to his backpack and looked for a tag. He read it then went over to the phone. The girls sat on the couch as they watched their step dad to be waited for the other parent to pick up, proud of the work he had done this day. 

From upstairs, they could hear the indignant yells of Law, who was met with the whining of Luffy. It was only a matter of time before those two crossed paths, Nami was glad she did. 

“So that was your plan from the start? Mess with Law?” Nojiko couldn’t help but snicker a bit at this. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I told him not to do any of this.” Nami put on her best innocent face. Nojiko gave her a playful shove. 

It wasn’t long before Luffy bounced back the stairs, only to be picked up by the back of the shirt by Mr. Donquixote. So his tough on the job side was coming out now. He looked like he was going to yell at him, but once again he stopped. 

“Do you know an Officer Monkey?” 

“You know my grandpa?” There was a moment when for the first time in her life, she saw fear on Luffy’s face. “Please don’t call my Grandpa.”

“I’m not going to call him this time. But next time you had better learn to listen when someone says no.”

Luffy deflated with relief, and there was one thing that became abundantly clear.

She was going to have to buy the kid lunch on monday. 


End file.
